Oklahoma state Rep. Sally Kern
Good ol’ Sally Kern is at it again, filing no less than three pieces of legislation directly targeting LGBT Oklahomans, according to the Tulsa World. And with one of the three, she appears to be borrowing a page from Texas Rep. Cecil Bell Jr.
Kern’s House Bill 1599 says that no taxpayer funds or governmental salaries can be used for the licensing or support of same-sex marriage:
“No employee of this state and no employee of any local governmental entity shall officially recognize, grant or enforce a same-sex marriage license and continue to receive a salary, pension or other employee benefit at the expense of taxpayers of this state. No taxes or public funds of this state shall be spent enforcing any court order requiring the issuance or recognition of a same-sex marriage license.”
Kern’s bill also directs state courts to dismiss any challenge to the measure and award costs and attorney fees to the defendant. A judge who violates the act would be removed from office, according to the bill.
Bell’s HB 623, which he pre-filed in early January and titled “The Preservation of Sovereignty and Marriage Act,” says basically the same thing.
Trial courts in both Texas and Oklahoma have already ruled against same-sex marriage bans, and while Texas is still waiting for a ruling from the 5th Circuit Court of Appeals, Oklahoma became a marriage equality state last October when the U.S. Supreme Court refused to hear an appeal of the 10th Circuit Court’s ruling in favor of equality in the case Bishop v Smith. U.S. District Court Judge Terrance Kern issued the trial court ruling that initially overturned the ban in Oklahoma, and Rep. Sally Kern has been sure to mention more than once that Judge Kern is no relation to her.
Toby Jenkins, executive director of Oklahomans for Equality, has issued a statement saying his organization” condemns this all-out assault on the LGBT citizens of Oklahoma. The courts have already ruled on the legality of same-sex marriages. To take our state backward a decade is obviously what our legislators are trying to accomplish.”
Kern — who made her first big splash in the LGBT news pond in 2008 when she declared that gays and lesbians are worse than terrorists — has also filed the “Freedom to Obtain Conversion Therapy Act,” which would guarantee parents the right to subject their children to so-called therapy to change them from being gay (a practice condemned by all reputable mental health associations), and House Bill 1597, would make it legal for businesses to refuse service “to any lesbian, gay, bisexual or transgender person, group or association” without fear of civil liability or penalty.
In her 2011 book, Kern called Dallas Voice a “source of evil.”
